Improvements

This semester with this class has been great. I have really enjoyed getting to read about the stories that I have wanted to learn about over the past couple years. I enjoyed this a lot and was always looking forward to reading more stories and seeing what new story I could find.
I think there were some improvements that could have happened though. I really like the audio books that Professor Gibbs put together. I liked those a lot because I work and am married so I can't often take a couple hours here and there to read everything, and trust me it would be a couple hours I am a slow reader. So having more options to listen to the readings would have been great. It would have helped me to be able to listen to the readings of the week while I was at work and then just come home and create my blog post for it. Doing things that way was great for me and helped me to get through my homework easier.
I think another great thing to add would be a day in which there is a learning video or something of the sort about the story. It is great to read it, but as a Religious Studies major I wanted the knowledge of what is behind the story, how it was created, things of that nature. I love that and would have loved to be able to learn more of the stories as the semester rolled.
This course was great, though, and I learned a ton and definitely improved my writing skills. Thank you Professor Gibbs for a great semester.

Storytelling: The Ox Who Won the Forfeit

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox muttered to himself as he pulled the wagons down the road for his master. This ox was the strongest ox in all the land. He was so strong that his master would brag to anyone he saw that he had the strongest ox of all the world. In fact, his master would see other men and their oxen and laugh at them saying, “That’s nothing compared to what my ox can pull!”. Nobody believed this man though, they knew him as the poor, crazy man from the farm out north. But every night the man would go to sleep boasting still about his mighty ox. 

One day the man came up with a brilliant idea. He would go prove his ox to the world. “Come on my beautiful ox! We are going to show the world of your strength!”. As they made it into the town the man boasted proudly of his ox. “My ox is the strongest in the world! If he can pull one hundred wagons, pay me one thousand silver pieces!”, the man shouted to the people in the village. 

“There is no way you ox can do that! I will take you up on your bet!”, the villager laughed and laid down one thousand silver coins. They hitched up one hundred wagons to the yoke of the ox and sat back to watch the show. 

“Come on, you rascal! Move! Get off your butt and go!” The master began to yell at his ox and whipping him to make him move. 

“What the heck?! My master has never said such cruel words, I will not move for him”, the ox thought to himself. After many minutes of this, the master conceded defeat and paid the one thousand coins. The two of them went home and went to bed without a word to each other. The next morning the master went to the ox, “Hey buddy. So, uh, you wanna tell me what happened yesterday? You have always been able to pull more than what was yoked up yesterday.”.

“You were being a jerk. Why on earth would I move for someone calling me foul names and whipping me? I am a strong ox, I don't need to be treated like a dumb ox.” The ox replied. 

“You are right,” the master said, “I will never treat you like that again. I am sorry.”.

“If you yoke me back up and take me to the village I will win you your prize, just don't be a jerk this time, okay?”, the ox said to his master and they began to make their way to the village. 

As they approached the village they saw the man they bet against yesterday. “Come to lose more money? I am willing to lay down double today!”, he said to them. 

“Deal!”, said the master, “Yoke him up!”. And they yoked up the ox and began to watch as the wagons began to move. 

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox was muttering to himself over and over. And the wagons were moving forcefully one after the other, until the last stood where the first was originally. All of the villager’s jaws had dropped and the master of the ox took his winnings. They went home happily and celebrated their winnings together. 

"Get along, you Rascal"

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Author’s note:

So in my story today, I decided to tell about The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I wanted to tell this story because I found it very interesting when I originally read it. I didn't want to change much of the story, but I did want to tell it with more dialogue than was originally given. I thought that one major change I would add was a simple “I think I can.”, to what the ox was saying to himself as he was pulling his yoke. The first thing I thought of when I read that an ox was pulling so much as Thomas the Train when he would go up the hills. I thought that it would give it a comic relief, but also bring back memories to a lot of people who might have at least seen the show back when they were kids. I think that being able to add this simple change in made the story a little more fun. Also I decided on having more dialogue about how I would think that the situation would play out between the ox and his master. I think that as well gave it more comic relief than just the seriousness of the original story. 

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

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Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part B

Another great story of the Jataka Tales that I got to read this week was about The King’s White Elephant. This one showed, in my opinion, that good can come from working hard. I liked to read this one because it was useful for me to ponder over as I read it. When you work hard good things happen, and that is what happened in this Jataka. It starts with a great elephant who had a splinter in his fought hobbling over to some carpenters. The carpenters saw that he was hurt and aided the elephant by pulling out the splinter. Thankful for their help he decided to help the carpenters with pulling down trees and moving them around. He was happy to help since they helped him. The carpenters fed him well and treated him very well. When this elephant had a baby elephant that was all white, he told the young elephant to go help the carpenters because they helped him first. So the young white elephant helped the carpenters in the same way that his parent did. At the end of the day this white elephant would go into the river and play with the carpenters kids. That is when the king saw this elephant and loved its beauty. So he paid the carpenters for the elephant and it went home to the palace where it was kept very well. So really this story ends up being kinda sad in the fact that he leaves his play mates and his family. And it might actually be a story of the better of looks that you have the better chance good things would happen to you… I want to think otherwise so I have decided to think that it means the harder you work good things will happen to you. 

The Elephant used to pull up trees for the carpenters.

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The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

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Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part A

One of my favorite pieces of literature that I have read this year has been the Jatakas. I am particularly interested in them because I am writing my story book over them, but they are also really interesting to read. Like in most Indian epic writings, the animals and humans have verbal communication to each other. I think this is particularly interesting and I wish I could do this… But they have tons of wisdom in each story. And each is equated to the spirituality of the Buddhist who have wrote and studies these. One of the interesting ones that I read this week was the story of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I was intrigued by this title because I did not know what it meant to win a forfeit. So I dove into this short story to get a good understanding of what it was. In this story a man who owns an ox claims that he has the strongest ox in the world. He boasted so much about this ox that he made a wager with some town folk for 1000 coins. He said his ox could pull 100 wagons. He yoked his ox and he yelled at him to pull and shouted bad names to his ox. His ox would not move so he lost his forfeit of 1000 coins. Later he went home and spoke to the ox who said that the bad names and whipping were cruel and so he did not move, but if he were to treat him better he would win his master his forfeit back. So they went back to the city and his master treated him so well. The ox pulled and won the forfeit. These tales are super interesting to me and I have loved to get to read each of them. I am looking forward to trying read and understand more. 

"Get along, you Rascal"

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The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

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Story: The Patient Buffalo

Once there was a man who was sleeping under a beautiful tree. He was not a lazy man but he got to spend his day sleeping because of the beautiful sunshine and the fact that it was a Saturday. This man loved to be outside so every Saturday he would go outside to spend time resting under the tree and taking a long nap. But every once and a while something slightly annoying happened. There was a little boy in town who loved to play some jokes on people. This boy loved to play jokes on this man in particular because he always saw him sleeping under the tree. 

Today this little boy had some friends with him and he wanted to show off what all he would do to this man to be funny. He said to them, “Watch this guys, I am gonna make him so mad!” Referring to the man under the tree. The boy picked up a stick he found on the ground and started poking the man in the arms and in the face. He was trying so hard to make the man mad but the man just sat patiently watching doing nothing. Finally the man got up from his nap under the tree and began to walk down the road. The little boy had another idea of how he could make the man mad. “Let me jump on his back, I will force him to give me a piggy back ride.”. As the boy ran towards the man he jumped and got on his back. He waved his stick around and pretended the man was a horse he was riding into a battle. Yet, the man did nothing but hold the boy on his back and continued to walk down the road. It seemed to the little boys friends that the man cared for this little boy and that he would never be mad. So the friends started to walk away thinking that the show was over. The boy hopped off the mans back and began to walk with them, admitting defeat. 

As the man continued to walk down the road he came across a monk who had watched the interaction between the little boy and this man. The monk asked the man, “Why do you not act harshly towards the little boy who persistently annoys you. Don't you know that you have authority over the younger people and that you could force him to stop what he is doing?” 

“Now why would I do that to the little boy?” The man asked the monk, “This boy is not smart, and he will learn, but I have no reason to force that on him. He is not a smart boy and I understand the mind of a child.” The man finished. 

“You answer well, sir.” The monk pulled off his hood to show his beauty, he was not just a monk but a fairy. “I grant you this, peace from all things on this earth, you will be happy and no little boys will be able to mess with you ever again”. 

Buffalo & Monkey

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Title: Twenty Jataka Tales

Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

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Author’s Note:

In this story I decided to base it off of one of my favorite Jatakas that I read, The Patient Buffalo. In the Patient Buffalo, a buffalo is being messed with by a monkey and the monkey is trying to make the buffalo mad. I chose to make the buffalo and monkey into human characters in order to give it a bit of a change. I liked the story though, so I wanted to keep it based off the same aspects. The fairy in the end I chose to make a monk because I wanted to relate it to something we could know better. I wanted to keep him a fairy though so that I could grant something magical to the man and it still make sense. I really enjoyed seeing the patience and resolve of the buffalo in the story and the man in my story because I feel that it really shows the way that the Buddhist people live. Not putting their own desires first, but keeping no desires at all. I thought this was important and I hope that I was able to relate this as I wrote my story. I hope that you enjoy my version of this Jatakas. 

Reading Notes: The Jatakas part B

As I continued to read the Jatakas tales, I was happy to understand more and read more and more bout them. They are some of the most interesting tales and they have great fun and wisdom inside each of them. One of my favorite stories that I got to read in part of the stories was the Patient Buffalo. This story was so good to me because one, I love buffalos. Also because it shows the patients and the resolve of the Buddhist people. I believe that this story is filled with wisdom of how to treat yourself and how to treat others. Knowing that Buddhist are people of no desire, and that desire itself is a bad thing. Seeing how the buffalo did not desire anything for himself but only to not cause this monkey harm was his priority. And with his patients to this monkey he was able to find peace through the magic fairy. Another tell that I really enjoyed was the Sarabha. I enjoyed this story so much because it was a lot like one of the stories that I used in my storybook project, the Banyan Deer. I liked the was that the deer talked to the king, having been able to communicate with humans just like in the other stories. I liked this story because the Deer spoke with the king and was able to connive the king to not hunt in the forest again. This is just like the story that I used in my storybook project (though i retold it so much better,,,). This was truly a great story to get to read and i really enjoyed getting to read something similar to what I already knew. I have loved getting to read the Jatakas because of the wisdom and the fun stories that are in them. They are filled with greatness in each story and I always look forward to reading more of them. I will probably be reading more of these stories as we finish out the rest of the semester. 

Buffalo & Monkey

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Title: Twenty Jataka Tales

Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

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Reading Notes: Jatakas part A

This week I chose to read the Jatakas tales. Seeing as I am writing my storybook project over some of the Jatakas tales, I decided that I would read more of them to gain a better understanding o the tales. I have really enjoyed guttering to read the stories that I have read this week and am looking forward to reading more later on. I believe that each tale has so much to offer on the wisdom of the buddhas and gives great wisdom for people. This week I got to read about the stories of the Monkey Bridge, which was a very good story in my opinion. I really enjoyed reading about how monkeys would not pay attention to their leader then realized they needed to. I liked how the monkey chief was the selfless one who aided and sacrificed himself for the good of the community and of his followers. This was a really good story. It made me think of my own religion, in how the people did not listen to God, and how Jesus came to sacrifice himself for everyone else. This story stood out to me the most because of this. I really enjoyed getting to read this story. One other story that I read was the story of the Guilty Dogs. I enjoyed reading this story for a couple different reasons. One of which is because I love the fact that the animals and the humans can talk to each other. This is the same in just about every Jatakas that I have read. All animals can have conversation with the humans. And most times the conversations take place between the chief of animals and the chief of man. This is interesting because it is not just conversation between a child and his puppy, but a chief dog and a king. This Jatakas also tells of the wisdom of the Buddhist, because you see just how the chief dog is able to tell that the palace dogs are the guilty party and not the city dogs. I think it is telling and important to know the wisdom of the Buddhist, because all of their stories illustrate just how wise these are. 

The Monkey Bridge

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Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

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Story: Little Krishna

One day many years ago there was a happy village. This village had many happy people. Everyone went around doing there jobs and helping out the village as it needed to be. Everyone loved what they did and loved the village even more. Everyone knew each other in this village. So when something happened to one person, the entire community knew about it. If it was good then they celebrated, if it was bad then they morned. Everyone loved each other and took care of each other. That is until a certain boy came along…

One day a little baby was born. His name was Krishna. He was born with the color of his skin being blue. Everyone thought it was just something that would go away by the end of the day, but as days went along his color never changed. This was mysterious to everyone. “Why is he blue?” everyone questioned each other, “Is he a special gift?” some would ask. Nobody really knew what had happened to Krishna. As Krishna grew up he always made trouble. It started with him eating mud off the ground. No child ever ate mud. And people worried about this. Krishna’s mom went to him worried. “What are you eating, son?”. As she opened his mouth. That instant she knew he was not just an ordinary child. As she gazed into his mouth she saw worlds beyond this world. She saw galaxies vast and distant. She saw every star in the sky. Marveled at this sight fell to her knees. Grabbed her little boy and hugged him tight. 

Many years later, Krishna began to be not only different from the rest of the community, but a bad child. And it didn't end with Krishna but he influenced many of his friends to be bad as well. “Come on” he would say, “they are making butter in here, lets take it!”. Krishna and his gang of misfits would rush into the house and take the butter that the woman was making from her, while she was watching. People were appalled by his behavior and his immaturity, while the kids thought that they were bringing real life into the village. What was seen as fun to the kids was evil to the adults. The people began to call them the “Butter Thieves". They took pride in this and stole more and more butter. 

The day came when powerful god came into the village. This god was an evil god, a god of destruction. He was feared in all the land and hadn't set foot in the village in many many years. This god brought a storm that was more powerful than any that had ever been seen by this village. Rain, thunder and lightning terrorized the village. As the villagers sought for shelter they had no place to go. Their homes were flooding and trees were falling. Before their eyes they saw a miracle like no other. Krishna was lifting a mountain. He raised the mountain onto his finger as he told everyone to climb underneath. All the villagers filled underneath the mountain in awe of the fact that Krishna was lifting it with his pinky. All the sudden the boy that was a menace became a hero and the awestruck villagers recognized this in Krishna. 

Krishna Holding the Mountain

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Krhisna Comes

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Authors Note:

In my story today I decided to write about Krishna in his many works as a young child. I wanted to tell of his misbehaving to his amazing works. I thought it would be fun to tell a story in the way that shows the village he grew up in. I wanted to show how his coming changed everything. I thought the best way to show this would be to show how his village was all happy always, and when he came a lot of things changed. Like the wonder of his skin to the misbehaving attitude and actions he had growing up and stealing butter. The whole butter part is one of my favorite things to hear. Because out of like everything that you could have stolen, why did he chose butter? I think that is hilarious, so I have to keep that part in. But people thought he was a menace in some ways, so I wanted to be sure and tell how thoughts changed as he saved everyone from the god who was attacking the villagers. This is a huge part of the story just because it show the strength of Krishna and also the love that he has for his community. Even though he was a menace, he loved his community and this showed just that in a huge way. I hope that you enjoy my telling of this famous story. 

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part B

In the second part of the story Krishna does many more miracles and mighty acts to display his strengths. It starts with Indra going to see Krishna and seeing that he really loved his friends and shared food with him. Knowing Krishna was a god he thought that it was crazy that he would share his food with them. So he wanted to see if Krishna really loved his friends, so he stole them and all the cows that he was tending to. When Krishna could to find them, he created them with his mind and Indra only saw all of the Krishnas. He was very impressed. Later Indra set a storm against Krishna’s village, this made it pour rain and lighting for many days and was flooding the ground. Krishna took the mountain that they were next to and raised it up with just his pinky. Everybody was so impressed and marveled at his strength. When the villagers thought that he had been holding it too long they tried to take over and none could hold it so Krishna took it back. More and more people were amazed at his powers and continued to believe that he was more and more of a god. As he grew up he was told that his parents were not his parents and that his real parents were being held by his uncle, the king, in prison. He found his uncle and his uncle realized that he was the eight son of his sister, the one who was supposedly going to kill him. So they fought and Krishna killed his uncle with the help of his brother. This then set his family free. It is important to understand the story of Krishna because we begin to see who the Hindu’s believe in. They also know one of the most important gods of the Hindu faith. I really love this story. I love the movie that was made about it to. 

Krishna Holding the Mountain

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Krhisna Comes

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Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part A

This week I decided to watch the epiffied version of Little Krishna. In this video, they tell the story of Krishna, how he was born to all the epic acts he did. It starts with his parents being imprisoned by his uncle who was told that he would die by the the eighth son of his parents. When he was born his father escaped his prison and went to a village where he exchanged his son with a daughter from the villager. When he returned the king was happy because he saw they had a daughter and not a son. The villager woke up the next morning and thought she had a daughter but woke up to a son. She was confused, but happy that she had a child. It didn't take long for her to realize that Krishna was special and not just an ordinary baby. She found Krishna eating dirt and when he opened his mouth, Krishna’s mom saw the universe in his mouth. Krishna became known as the trouble maker of the village, he would go around and steal from the villagers. I find it strange that in Hindu religion, people watch the gods and know that they came to show what not to do, instead of what to do. I am a Christian, so this was different to me. But anyways, the story is good. Krishna and his friends became known as the butter thieves for all the butter that they stole from the villagers. One day Krishna and his friends decided to go to the lake, it was a dangerous lake that had a deadly snake that poisoned the water along with the air. So while Krishna was playing his famous flute, all his friends became poisoned by the air. Krishna being upset about this summoned the snake and played his flute. While he played the snake was wrangled and his poison left. So his friends woke up and they all went home safely. This was the beginning of the story of little Krishna and his growing up. As He grew up he did a lot more awesome things and rescued many people in his village. I am excited to get to watch these stories because I really love the story of little Krishna. I think that his younger days were the best days and his adventures then were a lot of fun. I am looking forward to reading more. 

Little Krishna

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Krhisna Comes

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Storytelling: The Bhagavad Gita

Allan spoke Kris with worry in his voice. He was trying to discern whether or not he should tell the girl he had been crushing on that he was the one that saved the puppy from the cars, not Steve. “Kris, I am the one who saved that puppy, shouldn't Dorothy know that? I mean, cant you imagine how much more she would like me if she found out that that was me?” Allan said with a fair bit of anger that Steve had been taking credit. 

“Allan, you are not supposed to do good things just so you can get recognition. Couldn't you imagine how the world would be, if everybody was only doing good for the recognition. I mean, everyone would be selfish jerks on the inside. And what good is it to do good outwardly if your heart doesn't reflect the good that you are doing” Kris replied, trying to persuade Allan not to go rambling about his good deeds to the girl he liked. “Besides, if you go off and tell her that it was you, she would probably just think you are trying to take credit and like you less. You should just let your deeds speak for themselves as she sees you do it without you knowing” Kris added. Allan grumbled a little, he really wanted to tell Dorothy that it was him. She loves puppies and would love him more if she knew he saved the puppy. 

“But Kris, she loves puppies and would love me for saving that little thing. She would be all about me after that. I mean she would probably marry me on the spot for saving that little thing. That would be the dream, man. Dorothy and I forever” He finished and looked back at the much wiser Kris. Kris looked back at Allan with pity for him. 

“I know that you love her, and I know that you want to marry her, but think man, would she really marry you just because you saved that puppy from the street? I think she would need a little more convincing than that. Just do your good deeds and do not think about her. Do not try to obtain the fruit of labor, just labor for the good of others” Kris said to Allan. Allan knew that Kris was right, he just did not want to admit that. Why would he not care about what Dorothy thought of him, he loved her and wanted her to love him back. But he finally came to understand what Kris was saying. 

“Okay, Kris, I will give up on chasing her with this. Steve can have the victory today. Hopefully my love for her will be enough to pursue her rightfully. I just hope that I am a good enough man. I will try and do as I ought to do because I ought to instead of chasing the fruits” Allan said with a sigh of relief. He was happy to know, although still upset, that he can just be himself instead of trying to always be noticed. 

Krishna & Arjuna

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Authors Note:

My story is a reflection of a piece of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna that he needs not to chase the fruit, but instead just work hard because it is his duty to. I like this story because it talks of Dharama and how that is a huge piece of the society and Hindu religion. Allan plays the part of Arjuna and Kris plays the part of Krishna. I wanted to make this into a story that we can imagine happening all the time in our society. We try to impress people by our good deeds a lot of times. That philosophy is what Krishna speaks against and wants Arjuna to know is not the way to live, but instead just follow your dharma. I think that my story hits the point well in a way that is understandable for us today. This Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is one of my favorite chapters to read, so I hope that I did, indeed, do it justice. 

The Bhagavad Gita

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Reading Notes: The Bhagavad Gita part B

In this section of the Bhagavad Gita I learned that the that the character, Arjuna, was speaking to Krishna really with what seemed to be a loss of hope on his end. He did not want to fight his family but he was weighed down by the conviction of duty, dharma as they call it. So throughout this section of the story Krishna is really persuading Arujna to fight because of his dharma. This is important because Arjuna was really convicted against this but knew that Krishna was the god who was going to tell him what to do even through an undesired to do as Krisna commanded. Throughout this section we learn different stories that Krishna tell that relate to the faith that one must have. In each of these chapters of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells what it means, through story and theology what it means to have faith. So he described different types of faith so that Arjuna could really understand him. These theologies of the different types of faith help build the Hindu religion and what it looks like to follow on these different paths that one must take. These stories of theology also help build the backbone of the society that begins with the different types of classes that we still see today. It is important to understand as we read this book that it is not just an epic but it builds the religion and the society of India itself. I really enjoyed this book as I read because I got to lo ok at the conversation that was going on between Arjuna and Krishna during the Mahabharata. It is also great because we get to see how distraught Arjuna was over fightin his family. He was so upset about it that at one point he tells Krishna to become his charioteer again so he doesn't have to listen to a god telling him what he should do. I am excited that I will be reading the rest of this book because I want to dive deeper into an understanding of just how hard it is for Arjuna to fight and also learn about all the types of stories that were used to create an entire religion and society.

The Bhagavad Gita

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The Bhagavad Gita
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Storytelling: The Mahabharata

A long time ago, in a land far far away lived a man and his brothers. This man was the strongest man in the world. He also was the most rash man in the world. He would jump into fights without thinking and destroy all things in his path. His name was Hulk. Hulk and his brothers were in exile by the will of the king. Hulk hated exile, he urged his brothers time and time again to fight back and take the kingdom that they were exiled from. His brothers urged him to calm down and not to fight, but he grew more and more agitated by this. 

“I am Hulk and I must SMASH!!” He would yell out to his brothers who were meditating around him. “Join me brothers or we will die out here! Let us smash the king and take the kingdom back! We must smash!” Hulk continued to yell out. 

“Hulk, calm down” Thor, his brother said. “We have been subjected to exile now we must stay here. When the time is right, we will take back the kingdom. Hulk did not like this, he wanted to attack and to take the kingdom back. So he left his brothers sitting on the ground and ran into the world. While in the woods he came across a beautiful woman named Bala. Bala was a evil spirit who was trapped by her brother Loki. Bala came to Hulk and spoke to him about her love for him which Hulk reciprocated. “I love you Bala, but I am married and cannot be with you” he told her. 

“She has many husbands, she does not need you, come and be with me so that we can be together forever” Bala responded to Hulk. But while they were still talking Loki saw their interactions and attacked. 

“I am Loki and this is my sister Bala! What are you doing with her? Bala I told you to kill him” He shouted at Bala and Hulk. 

“I could not kill him, I love him” Bala Answered. “Hulk, kill my brother and free me”. Hulk, all too happy with what Bala said attacked Loki to kill him. Hulk ran at Loki and threw a nasty punch into Loki’s face. Loki flew into a tree but sprang up to attack Hulk. Loki kicked Hulk in the stomach and it threw Hulk to the ground. Hulk became very angry and grabbed Loki and squeezed him into two pieces. Loki’s body fell to the ground and Hulk let out a loud cry, which brought all his brothers running to him. 

Thor was the first to speak when he saw what had happened, “Hulk, who is this guy you killed? And who is this girl?”. 

“This Loki, evil spirit he is. And this is Bala my love”. Hulk answered Thor “Why do you all looked shocked? He was attacking me so I killed him”. 

“It’s not that you killed him, go you for that. It’s that you love Bala? You have a wife, Black Widow” Tony, another one of his brothers, answered. 

“Yes, but I love her, and now she is my love and I will marry her, you cannot stop me” Hulk answered. 

Bhima and Duryodhana

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Peter Brook's Mahabharata

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Author's note:

In my story this week I wanted to talk about Bhima. He was really a great character in Peter Brook's movie, so I wanted to focus on him as I made this story. I decided that I would equate the characters of the Mahabharata to the characters of the Avengers. Bhima related so well, in my own opinion to Hulk, so I gave him that name to make the story a little better. I enjoyed making the characters reflect the different Avenger's because they actually seemed to fit really well with the Avenger's characters. I decided to focus the story on the part where Bhima meets his second wife. I wanted to do this part because I thought that I could focus it more on the story and be able to show a lot of Bhima and Hulk's characteristics.

Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part D

Peter Brook's Mahabharata continues to interest me as I finished it off today. I just really enjoyed the entire thing as it related back to the original story. I loved the acting, though not the best, it was fun to watch how excited the characters were to be in the roles that they were playing. I loved the final battle of the movie, where Arjuna's son went into the ring to fight. It was sad to see him die though since he was just a young man. The battle was great though, interesting to watch, and great to see the reactions of the characters as they watched and battled together. I thought that the scene of Bhima going into the battle to kill Duryodhana. The battle with the maces was kinda funny and great even though it seemed so dramatic for everything, but I kinda feel like every battle that was fought was super dramatic and wasn't as realistic as I would expect a battle to be. But that is okay with me, the fight was great and the ending of the movie turned great. It was weird to see Krishna dying in the end just because I would not expect a god to die. So seeing this part of the movie made it interesting to me because I was seeing the mortality of all the people and gods in the Hindu religion. The movie was great, it was a good epic to watch and being able to rehear what it looked like as compared to the book version of the story was great. I did like the book version more, but the story all around was great and I was happy that I decided to watch this film. I will be trying to get my wife to watch it sometime soon. 

Bhima and Duryodhana

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Peter Brook's Mahabharata
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Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part C

As I keep watching this movie, the more ridiculous it becomes to me. It seems to me that it plays everything out very strangely. And I know that the actual story is quite strange when reading, very different than a modern story at least. But this movie just seems to be quite different. I am enjoying watching the film for the fact that I am relearning more what happened in the story and I can compare the words to film, which have been great to get to do because I get a better understanding of the film. I have enjoyed getting to watch the parts with Bhima. His character has been the best in this film because he seems to be the most unstable of all the brothers and all the characters in general. I  enjoyed watching his battle scene with the ruckshasas that he fought in exile. This part of the movie was awesome. The battle noises that he made and also the style of fighting that was taken up was just great. It seemed to me that it went well with the story as he fought and then married his second wife the ruckshasas. Then having a baby with

her, who in the film was a full grown man, and then never getting to spend time with him made it so interesting. The part of the story where he met his son for the first time was all around just an interesting and strange part. I was excited to continue watching because I wanted to see where else Bhima would make appearances. His actions when he killed the man who wanted to sleep with Draupadi was very interesting. I couldn't exactly tell what was going on but there seemed to be something funny happening before he killed him. 

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

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Peter Brook's Mahabharata

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Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part B

The second part of the film was very interesting to me, seeing the sons of Pandu as all different race of men was funny. I thought that the adaptation of this was to make white people feel more comfortable with it, but just knowing that they would have been Indian and not white made me a little upset to see. This was just one of those things that I did not care for but I tried to not let it affect the way that I watched the movie. I know that the movie had a lot of good material in it, and I was excited to see an adaptation to the film. One of the pieces that stood out to me the most was the way that Drapudi prayed to Krishna and how Krishna granted her prayers. Though I do not remember the part where Drapudi was forced to have her clothes taken off of her in the actual epic, it definitely made for a way to understand the power that Krisna had in the epic itself. Krisna was obviously a large figure in the story and I am glad that he was made as a large figure in the film as well. Watching the part of the gambling match was really interesting as well. I liked the way that they gambled each person away one at a time, it made it more of exciting, hoping that at least one of the characters would not get won by the bad guys in the film. Knowing what was going to happen in the future though made me sad because I just knew after every roll that they would all get bet away into exile. I am excited to continue to watch the film and see what happens to the brothers through the films version of the story.

The Fatal Dice Game

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Peter Brook's Mahabharata

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film

So I decided that I would watch the film the Mahabharata by Peter Brook. The first part of the film that I watched was very interesting. I enjoyed it, but it was different to me, maybe thats because I don't have a great taste for older movies, or something of that sort, but it was truly interesting. I thought that parts of the film were rather mellow dramatic in the end, maybe a lot less dramatic then the actual story would say. I feel like everything in the storybook that we read was very dramatic. This film seemed to me just to make the story almost get to the dramatic level, but then it just dies. One scene that sticks out to me as being this form of melodramatic was the scene of Pandu's death. There was that of a build up between him and his wife and then all the sudden he just rolls over dead. It wasn't that I wanted to watch them make love or anything, but the whole scene just build and died so quickly that it made it kinda strange in my view, especially when I look at the story and see the drama that is added into it. Over all the story was good and I felt like it followed the epic really well to the best of my knowledge, I enjoyed seeing it played out by humans in "real life". It made the story more real to me and helped me to understand how in human ways of life these events could have played out. I really did enjoy this film as interesting as it was. I am excited to continue to watch the film and see how this adaptation finishes. I am hoping to see it follow the rest of the epic as closely as possible.

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

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Peter Brook's Mahabharata
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Week 8 Growth Midset

Over the past half of the semester I have seen areas in my work ethic that have been driven and have grown to become better based off the my original growth mindset post back in January. I have grown a lot just from going through this class. But there are some areas that I feel my work ethic for school could grow even more. Often times over the course of this class I have found myself only reaching to get my work done at the minimal standard. Whether that be from running out of time, procrastinating or just no desire to get my work done, I have found myself only trying to get the minimum accomplished. I feel that this is a major area where I could grow. I know that there are many areas in my life that can improve if I just take growth mindset of working to get as much as possible done and overachieving in my book. I think that I could grow a lot from school to work. I think another area that I find myself struggling in is doing things at the last minute. Granted that some of the things that I do at last minute are based off the fact that I work every day so I am playing with a kinda crazy schedule, I could prioritize my day better so that I can make sure that I am getting things done with plenty of time, and this would probably motivate me to getting my work done at a higher standard of doing more than just the minimum. This semester has been great in helping me figure out where I have grown but also where I have room to grow. I am looking forward to the end of the semester to see exactly where I will grow and how I will make it happen.

Do More Work Harder

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Week 8 Reflection

Over the course of this course I have learned a lot about what it looks like to write interactively and to create stories. I could always right a research paper and get a pretty good grade on it, but this was very new to me. I have improved a ton on and have learned a lot about it. I feel like as time has gone on, my stories have progressively gotten better. I have always liked what I was writing over, but I feel like my verbiage and my writing style has improved a ton. I am honestly impressed with myself based on what I was able to do over these few weeks. The readings have been really interesting to me. I have loved getting to dive deeper into the Indian epics, because I have read parts of them all before, but getting to read/listen to the entire things has been great. Each of them stood out to me in their own ways, but I truly enjoyed the readings of the Ramayana and also the video that focused on Sita. These were enjoyable and made my work day go by quicker because of how I got to listen to them while I was at work. I have decided to go into reading more in the Indian epic side of the future ure stories, so I wanted to read the Kalevala. I want to read it not only because it is an Indian epic, but also because I can listen to it while I am at work, which is very helpful for me. I have really enjoyed reading other peoples stories. I feel like when I read their stories I am the worst storyteller ever. I feel like most people surpass me far with their writings because they are all so intriguing and keep me focused the entire time. I love the stories that really hook me in right away.

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The Burning of Lanka

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Storytelling: The Mahabharata

Deep in the woods there was a man named Eka. Eka was a young man who lived in the woods his entire life. He knew nothing else other than the woods so all he could imagine about life was in the trees that surrounded him. The woods were his life. He loved every inch of them. As he grew up he traveled all around and up and down the various places that the trees could offer him, he met many wanders trading them directions for stories of the great and marvelous cities and the great men that dwelt within the walls. Though his fascination of the cities inspired him, Eka lived for the trees. As he grew up he learned he needed to be good with either a sword or a bow to ward off any dangerous predators that would come near him. Eka chose the way of the bow and as he grew up he practiced and practiced with the bow. For hours every day he would shoot, but he was not very good. He wanted to give up but he couldn’t do it, for his own life he had to get good with the bow.

One morning as the sun was coming up he heard a man walking through the forest whistling a tune as he went. Eka was curious, thinking that the man must be lost he went to him to offer directions, but as he looked upon the man’s face he felt a new sort of curiosity come over him. He had seen this man’s face before. He wasn’t someone who came walking through the woods, he never forgets the faces of the people he meets, he was a face on a picture that someone had given a long time ago.

“What’s your name stranger?” Eka yelled out to man strolling through his forest, “You need to some directions?” he yelled again but only silence was answered in return. “HEY!” Eka yelled even louder this time to get his attention as he ran over to the strange man. “What is your name and do you need directions?!?!” Eka yelled in the old mans face.

“My name is not of your business and no I do not need directions” the old man said to him in a calm manner and continued to walk on past Eka.

            “I wont have it, you are in my woods, I demand your name” Eka said sternly, “Why have I seen your face before on a picture with a bow and arrow” He questioned him.

            “Ooohh, so you are a bow man are you? My name is Dro, I am a master archer back in the city” Dro said in a still voice.

            “A bow master? Will you teach me? I have been practicing for years, and I need to be better while I live out here. Please, teach me!” Eka said eagerly to Dro.

            “No” Dro answered.

            “What do you mean ‘No’” Eka questioned.

            “I mean, no” and Dro walked away leaving Eka behind without another word.

Ekalavya Cutting Off His Thumb

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The Mahabharata

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Authors Note:
I really enjoyed this part of the story so I wanted to focus my story on it. I wanted to make the story something kind of like Jungle book or Tarzan, so I made Ekalavya into a man who has only ever known the forest. I also just shortened the name of the characters so that I could make them a little easier.